CIVICUS Board Elections 2022

Abigail Freeman

Birce Altay​

I have completed my bachelor’s degree in English Linguistics at Hacettepe University, in 2010 and master’s degree in Social Projects and NGO Management at Istanbul Bilgi University, in 2021. Prior to beginning my professional career, I spent a year as a volunteer in Sweden in 2012. Following my return, I started working as a content editor at a start-up in 2013 and was mainly responsible for creating and editing content both in Turkish and English. In 2015, I transferred to Radikal Newspaper as an editor, where I noticed my growing interest in civil society organizations, their work, and the environment they operate in. Following the shutdown of the newspaper, I joined Third Sector Foundation of Turkey (TUSEV) in 2016 as the Communications Coordinator and was appointed as the Deputy Secretary General in October 2020. In addition to my posts in TUSEV, I am currently a committee member of the Enabling Environment Fund of Worldwide Initiatives for Grantmaker Support (WINGS) and coordinating #GivingTuesday movement in Turkey, under the name #PaylaşmaGünü. I would like to become a member of the CIVICUS Board because I would like to put concrete contribution to the enhancement of civil society within a global scale, to find out new paths I could use my expertise in and of course, to keep on learning and growing.

  1. What is your favorite quote by someone who inspires you? 

“Hope is not like a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch… Hope is an ax you break down doors within an emergency… Hope should shove you out the door, because it will take everything you have to steer the future away from endless war, from the annihilation of the Earth’s treasures and the grinding down of the poor and marginal. Hope just means another world might be possible, not promised… Hope calls for action; action is impossible without hope.”

Rebecca Solnit, Hope in the Dark

  1. What skill are you most proud of or want to learn? 

I think I’ve become quite good at bending mentally in the recent years, in order to not to break. Though it felt scary at first, like losing grip of things I have been holding on for so long, I’ve come to realize that sort of a change enabled me to look at things from different perspectives. Being able to see and assess from different angles eventually led to curiosity, more questions, and more possibilities, all of which I am happy to discover along the journey. 

  1. What is your vision for civil society (50 – 100 words)? 

I am envisioning a civil society that uses the power it has also towards changing the dynamics between itself and all the stakeholders related, more often. I believe this would help not only changing some parts of the narrative that encapsulates civil society but also set a great example of a transformation. My vision of civil society also includes more effort and time spent on discovering the ways to create common grounds while acknowledging the different realities. The last but not the least, my envisioned civil society, civil society communicates in such a way that would help itself has a place in individuals’ daily agenda.

  1. What lesson(s) have you learnt from failure (50 – 100 words)? 

Failure taught me three major things; the first is, there may be times to reassess what we understand by and what we call success. The second is, a failure might be helpful in putting some distance between yourself and what happened; this may eventually create a chance for regaining the wideness of the vision that may got lost by looking and thinking the same way for too long. The last but not the least, not the failure itself but the fear of it is one too powerful feeling and should be handled boldly. 

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